Largest ever infrastructure project of India
India’s largest ever infrastructure project entailing $100-billion – Delhi-Mumbai Industrial Corridor Development Corporation (DMICDC), going to begin work on the first city of Dholera in Gujarat. Dholera is a port town within the Gulf of Khambhat. The final phase would witness Dholera evolving into a 550 square kilometer city.In its first phase DMICDC will establish six cities canvassing 40 to 50 square kilometers each and one of 153 square kilometers.
Reasons for expediting work:
DMICDC is trying to expedite its plan in order to spur manufacturing growth within the country as well as help the country ride out the economic slump. Once it is completed, about 2.15 lakh direct jobs along with 6.18 lakh indirect jobs is expected to be generated by this mega project.
Project Prospectus:
By 2040, the DMICDC envisages establishing 24 new cities within the country. In its first phase, DMICDC would build cities around the high-speed 1,483-km-long dedicated freight corridor (DFC). The DFC is a rapidly progressing railway network funded by the government of Japan. The first phase is scheduled to be completed by 2019.
Formulation of SPVs:
The genesis of the ideology behind DMICDC springs up from the dire need of developing industries around and along the DFC. Although the DMICDC is generally viewed as a project, it is in reality a massive program which is being piloted by individual special purpose vehicles (SPVs). These special vehicles are created to ward off any legal hurdles that might arise at a later date or stage because of political expediencies within a region.
SPVs would possess the power and authority to charge a user fee on the infrastructure built within a new city. The DMICDC has to intricately look into the details of each project and ensure that all international standards are met while creating these new cities. Going by the sheer scale of the program, this could easily be the largest city-developing exercise to ever be undertaken, in the world.
Workings of the project:
The DMICDC’s working is simple. After the required amount of land for a city project is acquired by the respective state government, it sets up an SPV to create trunk infrastructure or base infrastructure or such as power connections, water, drainage system, roads, broadband network, etc. Only once the base infrastructure is completed and in place would investment from industries be invited.
Furthermore, apart from the base or trunk infrastructure the DMICDC would also be focusing on interface management. For example, two water treatment plans – one for domestic water and another for industrial water was initially being planned in Dholera. However, by way of innovation, DMICDC eliminated the requirement for one of them which has translated into hundreds of crores of rupees being saved.
